Coming into this game, the Carolina Hurricanes scored six goals in their first two games of 2024 and were looking to stay hot against St. Louis. But the Blues put an end to Carolina’s winning streak, defeating them in a five-round shootout. In a playoff-esque game, each team was getting into lanes and blocking shots but Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington and the rest of the St. Louis squad got the last laugh.
Binnington and Hurricanes netminder Antti Raanta stood on their heads all game with neither giving up a goal after the first period. After making a coaching change, the Blues (20-17-1) have found a new groove, winning seven of their last 10. The Canes (22-13-5) hoped to come away from the game with two points, but a shootout loss still gives them one point in the standings and extends their point streak to six games.
“We feel good about ourselves and [are] getting more confident in our game,” said left wing Teuvo Teravainen. “There’s more and more good things in our game so we’re going in a good direction.”
St. Louis got the jump on Carolina early, almost scoring less than 10 seconds into the game. After defenseman Brady Skjei missed a bouncing puck, his defensive partner Brett Pesce came sliding across the goal and saved the puck with his skate on a yawning net. Although the score was still 0-0, the Canes were on the backfoot, putting up just one shot on goal in the first 10 minutes.
On a puck that was lifted into the air and out of the zone, defenseman Dmitry Orlov jumped to try and grab the puck out of the air but misjudged the height of the puck. With a full head of steam, Blues left wing Nathan Walker skated around Orlov, collected the loose puck and went five-hole on Raanta to put St. Louis up 1-0 11 minutes into the game.
The Caniacs didn’t have to wait long for their team to tie up the game. Just over two minutes later, Teravainen found the back of the net on the power play. Center Jack Drury’s faceoff win slowly made its way to Teravainen and he wasted no time sniping a wrist shot underneath the Binnington’s arm.
During their six-game point streak, the Canes have converted on an astronomical 52.4% of their power play opportunities. Carolina has scored 26 goals since Dec. 27 and 11 of them have come on the man advantage.
It would take a shootout before another puck crossed the goal line, with the majority of the game highlighted by each team’s goaltender. Both Raanta and Binnington were going post-to-post making desperate saves.
Raanta’s best saves came in the overtime period, when he made a double save on Blues left wing Brandon Saad right in the crease. Since returning from his AHL reassignment, Raanta has only started in two games. With fans chanting his name and cheering him on, he is now looking back to his confident self.
“You have a couple bad games and you kind of forget what you’ve been doing for 15 years,” Raanta said. “When you lose you can’t be too satisfied, but a lot of good things [to take away].”
With both goalies standing strong in net, both sides felt the need to put their bodies on the line. The Blues blocked an astounding 25 shots, making it hard for the Canes to stay patient and make the right play.
“We know where we have to attack and then you kind of have to wait for that lane to open up, and then you gotta take it — and sometimes we were overpassing early,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “I thought we got better as the game went on and in the third period we had some good looks.”
For the first three rounds of the shootout, both goaltenders made their saves quickly, putting the game into sudden death. Center Sebastian Aho scored the Canes one shootout attempt by outwaiting Binnington on the glove side but was promptly answered by Blues left wing Jake Neighbours at the other end of the ice.
In round five, following the Hurricanes’ left wing Jordan Martinook’s failed attempt, center Brayden Schenn silenced the crowd by going out wide and firing the puck into the net. Despite a solid performance the “skills competition” once again didn’t go Carolina’s way.
The Hurricanes will look to get back in the win column when they take on the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m.
